€33m funds for upgrade of courses turned down

THE Government has refused to invest the €33 million needed to update Leaving Certificate courses in order to attract more young people into engineering and construction studies, two areas in which points for many third-level courses have dropped this year.

Syllabuses for the new subjects of engineering technology and architectural technology — replacing engineering and construction studies — have been finalised for about four years. But the Department of Education has said the funding to train teachers to deliver the new courses and provide schools with the necessary equipment is not available this year, despite earlier promises that it would be.

The amount of money involved has not been made public before, but documents seen by the Irish Examiner reveal that it would cost almost €21 million to implement the engineering technology course. The figure includes €16.4m for equipment, €2m to re-wire schools and €2.35m for teacher training.